Ramblings about cycling, politics, and life.

“We must ignore all the issues with Hilary and the DNC and band together to defeat this evil menace!!”

Can ​someone tell me what’s so dangerous about Trump? Is it because he’s itching to start a war with Russia… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s trying to reignite Cold War fears to distract from his scandals… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s anti-single payer… oh wait that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s anti $15 minimum… oh wait that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s been exposed as taking bribes to get donors administration positions… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s super pro Israeli genocide… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he’s pro-TPP and any trade deal that’ll crush our jobs and rights… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he rigged an election in his own favor and subverted the most important freedom we have in this country… oh wait, that was Hilary. Is it that he’s beholden to legions of corporate donors that oppose the progressive movement… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it all the people he’s killed in interventionist wars all over the globe… oh wait, that’s Hilary. Is it because he runs a money laundering agency for pay-to-play politics with foreign governments… damn it, that’s Hilary too. Is it because he’s directly controlled media in an attempt to lie to people and subvert democracy… nope, still Hilary. Is it because he hired on a disgraced party chair caught cheating in the primary… shit, was that Hilary too? Must be the private prison lobby money… nope, Hilary. ’94 crime bill… Hilary. Big drug war advocate… Hilary. Anti-transparency, whistle blower prosecutor… Hilary. Anti-regulation of large banks… Hilary. Secret speeches to Wall St. firms… Hilary. Getting caught in a new lie every week… Hilary. Deemed “extremely careless” by the head of the FBI for improper handling of government information… Hilary.
So, for real, what the fuck is so dangerous about Trump that makes him MORE dangerous than Hilary? I couldn’t even dream up someone more dangerous than Hilary. The cognitive dissonance and mental gymnastics going on with democrats right now is just sofaking mind blowing to those of us without blue blinders on.

And you can ridicule me and throw all kinds of ad hominem shade my way for now supporting Trump (so many already have). You can call me racist and nazi and everything in the book, but one thing you sure as shit won’t do is confront me with facts – because there aren’t any. Any objective reading of reality and facts pegs Trump as the lesser of evils by A LANDSLIDE. That’s why the shillbots and blue blinded folks have nothing to offer in retort but insults and hyperbolic rhetoric making repeated references to Hitler.

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I heard two pretty great points made today by someone I don’t normally have much respect for.

#1. Rank and file democrats have developed an almost Stockholm Syndrome relationship with their party. In spite of decades of doing absolutely nothing for or actively undermining the middle class, the rank and file still love the party and seem to draw tighter with it with each passing scandal and revelation. The DNC has effectively sold the idea “at least we care, unlike those terrible Republicans,” and that’s now sufficient for their voting base – even in spite of the DNC’s decades of failure to do anything for them.

#2. Trump has been a public attention whore for over 30 years. It was his marketing strategy for his businesses. We’ve watched his shows, read his books, and seen him interviewed by every news outlet on the planet. We knew everything there was to know about him prior to this election. Not once in the prior 30 years was he ever labeled a racist, bigot, or “dangerous.” In fact, he was well known as left of center. Now, suddenly, everyone wants to act like he’s the spawn of Hitler because… they don’t even know. He’s racist. Is he? Quote it. They can’t. Bigot? Quote it. They can’t. What makes him more dangerous than the proven war monger that has some kind of vendetta with Russia? They don’t know.

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Much has changed in a year, including my desire to write, ease of flow of my writing, and the amount of free time I have to write. The amount of time that’s passed since a substantial post should be evidence enough of all that. I suppose a desire to write is actually always there, somewhere, but the difference between “I should probably write something” and meaningful content flowing freely to the e-paper is, well, the difference between a post actually getting written or me finding something else to do. Plus, there’s that whole issue of most of my writing previously taking place at work and now no longer having my own office. In fact, I still have a saved draft for what was supposed to be a play by play and analysis of how “#shutitdown” was quickly and effectively changed to “#blacklivematter” in order to stifle an uprising and flip it on its head into a way to further divide the populace.

That draft never made it past the title. This would seem to be a more fitting time than any to actually finish it, but then that would distract me from less important things, like this directionless rambling and lengthy reminiscing on what’s occurred while I’ve been MIA from the blogosphere for the past year. Anyway, I think most people have figured out the “black lives matter” farce on their own at this point. Except the liberals. They’re just getting worse. I like to follow people and pages on social media to keep a pulse on different groups, even though I’m not actually friends with most of these people. I follow the young, Christian couples married at 19 years old, people my age that failed to start and think they’re still in high school, doomsday prepping gun nuts, grads of good schools and bad slaving their lives away (some in real careers, some at Starbucks or equivalent) to pay back their student loans, social justice warriors, kids fresh out of college that think they know everything, military dependapotomouses, police apologists, and, my new favorite, 2016 liberals. I need to come up with a more catchy name for them. I’m open to suggestions. In spite of the lack of a catchy or meme-able name, you’ll still know them when you see them. They’re the people who talk about “safe spaces” (in a totally serious, non-mocking way). They voted for Bernie, but don’t think he’s anti-gun enough. They think whites are racist and ruining the world just by existing (yet, ironically, they’re almost all white themselves). They’re new-age feminists that think everything is rape – including guys saying “hello” to women they pass on the street and the simple existence of a male sex, that’s rape too. They’re the ones that can turn anything into a race issue and scream “RACIST!” at anyone that disagrees with them. Those people. You know the type I’m talking about. Mostly college age. Mostly jobless. Mostly clueless. Saving the planet by putting Caucasians down at every opportunity. Sorry if any of that triggers someone. I should have put a trigger warning. Those a big thing these days too. Anyway, so yeah, I follow some of those people too – just to keep tabs on how crazy they’re getting.

How crazy are they getting? Pretty fucking crazy. The latest litter, fresh out of college (or still in), seems to be trying to one-up the fools before them. Grammar is now racist. Grammar. This was one of many items I’ve been able to check off my bucket list in the past year. I was hoping I’d live to see the day that something as objective, non-political, mundane, and harmless as grammar could successfully be labeled as racist. Life didn’t disappoint and we got there with freightening rapidity. This has resulted in the need for some adjustment though. I used to self-identify as “liberal”. This is no longer accurate or advisable (lest people think I get my entire worldview from Vice and/or Huffington Post). In the past year, the term “liberal” died. “Liberal” has ceased to mean “progressive” and now has become synonymous with being what is, for all practical purposes, a neo-con that loves gays and abortion and hates guns and white people. That’s not me. My IQ isn’t low enough for that kind of lack of independent thinking. So henceforth, my use of the term “liberal” will be in the same pejorative sense that conservatives use it.

Speaking of worldviews and delusional people, we’ve had some tragic, but amazingly landmark events in just the past few months. I’ve written in the past about the need Americans have for even the most complex of issues to be boiled down into black and white simplicity with easily remembered and repeated rhetoric. Of course, when you over-simplify complexity and substitute catchy rhetoric for critical thinking, what you end up with is usually a completely inaccurate representation of reality. But Americans have never been known to let facts and logic get in the way of their opinions. Subsequently, Americans of all political leanings have an obsession with fabricated narratives: “Islam is the religion of peace”, “mass shooters are crazy white people”, “gays aren’t criminals”, “only guns allow for mass killings”, “mass shootings only happen in America because we don’t have enough gun control”, “blacks are always victims”, etc. These narratives are then paraded around as facts and used to justify worldviews, political actions, etc. Within the past year, these narratives and more have been completely shattered. A gay, Muslim guy shot up a night club. Liberals were beside themselves and when the gay and Muslim came out, the story was swept under the rug as quickly as possible. Then a “black lives matter” activist decided he’d had enough and started gunning down police officers. Conservatives didn’t know how to react – call him a criminal thug because he’s black or cheer for him using the Second Amendment in exactly the way they always interpret it. I could see their heads exploding as I watched them try to make sense of it. In both cases, liberals didn’t waste one second before blaming the crimes on guns and demanding more gun control. Dems in Washington even staged an election season pandering fest “sit in” in congress to demand more gun control (then immediately voted down the proposed measures… but I digress). “This wouldn’t happen without ‘assault weapons’!!!” the liberals cried. “Yes it would,” conservatives retorted, “someone could just drive a truck into a crowd and kill just as many people.” “Impossible! That would never happen. You’re an ammosexual living in a fantasy world!” the liberals fired back. Then, whether by cosmic comedy, fate acting as some sick movie director acting perfectly on cue, or an unbelievably timed coincidence, someone drove a truck into a crowd and killed 80+ people. Conservatives seemed to almost celebrate. Liberals were completely silent. Life went on, no beats missed, for the rest of us. I wasn’t surprised. The small number of other people with brains weren’t surprised. It was as unsurprising as a population finally deciding to start shooting cops as retribution for cops shooting them… but alas that’s another issue and this post is already getting long-winded.

I don’t want this to be all politics and world events though. Yet, in spite of my efforts to make a non-political post here and there, this blog always seem to sway back towards politics and economics (they are both in the main header, after all). Maybe because those things interest me and get me heated enough to take the time to write on them. Maybe because I feel there are so few voices of logic and reason out there talking about either. Maybe because that’s all I’m capable of writing about on a consistent basis. Hopefully it’s not that last reason. I originally wanted this blog to be about cycling adventures and industry events (like my venting about shit road disc brakes and how much Specialized sucks). That never really materialized because I figured no one but me cares about what I do on my bike, plus BikeSnobNYC already has that market cornered (though he’s losing his funny these days). I very recently (like, really really recently, while typing the previous sentence) thought about expanding this blog to discuss operations management and poor management induced workplace issues – maybe I still will. For awhile I’ve thought about making a blog written from my dog’s perspective – maybe I still will. But first, back to what I originally wanted: a blog about outdoor adventures. Hopefully my move to Colorado provides for and facilitates the writing of stories and ramblings interesting enough to write about, maybe they’ll even be interesting enough to read too. Since I can’t keep this blog on topic, I made another one: here. Don’t be too disappointed that there’s currently nothing but a header and the default sample post from WordPress. That blog will hopefully, someday when I’m feeling it, chronicle the adventures and misadventures of my fiancé and I, plus be a place for me to vent and/or share words of wisdom about outdoor life. Of course, I don’t have any time or desire to do that right now though. I wasted it all writing this post.

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We have a new, hot-button issue of the week: using the terrorist watch list to restrict gun purchases. The hypocrisy from both sides that this issue has brought into the spotlight is unparalleled. It’s painful to read/hear the arguments. I’m not sure what’s going to cause my head to explode first…

Will it be the people on the left who were vehemently opposed to the unconstitutional “terrorist watch list” a week ago (thankfully the ACLU has maintained its lawsuit through this festival of hypocrisy) and railing against Trump for daring to take away rights without due process, who are now all about the watch list and extra-judicial right usurpations because they’re using it to suit their anti-gun agenda?

Or will it be the people on the right, who one week ago were totally on board with revoking rights based on religion, wanted every Muslim in the country tracked and registered, liked illegally locking up people in Gitmo, and supported the 5th Amendment destroying Patriot Act, who now are suddenly SO concerned with the unconstitutional nature of the terrorist watch list and SO concerned with 5th Amendment violations… because white people’s access to guns is in danger.

The country is really, really showing its true stupidity during this very pitiful time.

A question for the idiots on the left: Would you still be in favor of using the watch list to infringe on rights if it was President Trump calling the shots for who goes on the list? Because just yesterday I saw you going crazy over the mere suggestion that we restrict the rights of anyone based on anything other than commission of a crime.

And a question to the idiots on the right: Would you still be fighting for these gun rights if it was guaranteed all the people on the list were Muslim? Because just yesterday I saw you going crazy over some dire need to register/deport Muslims and how we MUST reject Syrian refugees because Muslims are terrorists.

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It’s been entertaining, frustrating, disheartening, and at times disgusting to watch the responses to and analysis of this recent rash of shootings. I first got to watch people on the left jerk off to the Planned Parenthood shooting because it fit their narrative of extremist, right-wing gun owners as the “real threat” to America. Their elation was almost tangible – “We were right! We were right!”. Now, only a few days later, I’m watching people on the right jerk off just the same to the San Bernardino shooting because it is (so far) looking like it will fit their agenda of radical, evil Muslims attacking us on our home soil – “We were right! We were right!”

Whether you’re an anti-gun nut or an anti-Muslim nut, let it be known – you’re a fucking nut. You’re politicizing tragedies to push an agenda, all while accusing and condemning the other side for doing the same thing. You’re celebrating dead people because you see it as vindication of your beliefs.

“Oh that evil NRA is always using these events to fear monger more people into buying guns!” Yeah? You’re using the same event to paint all gun owners as evil people and fear monger your sheep into supporting more gun control.

“Oh those damn liberals are always using these events to take MY RIGHTS!!” Yeah? You’re using the same event to call for more discriminatory, xenophobic laws that take away other people’s rights.

The only real threat to America is people that will stop at nothing to force their illogical, emotion filled agendas on the country, including displays of gross hypocrisy. Both sides claiming their agendas stem from a love of rights and freedoms… just as long as those rights and freedoms happen to be the ones they want for themselves. Both sides blasting the opposing side for use of hyperbole and rhetoric, all while using their own to blast the other side. Neither side wanting to let a tragedy be a wasted opportunity to push their own breed of totalitarianism and self-centered policy.

So congratulations, we’ve finally done the impossible and found common ground between the self-identified “left” and “right”. You’re both a bunch of empathy-less fuck sticks that get excited over dead people if you feel their deaths somehow prove your narrative right.